39 Comments

Jay Kent
on August 14, 2011 at 10:39 pm

i found your article about ectomorph compound exercises interesting and I want to do it right. The thing is, can i do it with 1 day rest interval? example. day 1 – monday; rest day – tuesday; day 2 – wed.?

I think your website is very informative and by far one of the better ones I’ve come across. I have a few questions though:

Can women use your Beginner Gym Workout Routine? (and every other piece of advice here).

If so, does the beginner routine, and meal plans need to be altered according to age, gender, lifestyle etc? (24yrs, 5ft 7in, 120lbs)

What about muscle milk and other protein powders? Would those be good for women too?

Finally, I was wondering if it’s ok to divide the exercises during the day. For example, I sit in a cubicle all day, but there’s a bike in work that I take 20 minutes to use. By the time I get home, it’s hours away, so I would probably work on other parts of my body. Is this time in between exercising ok?

I am not the best person to ask if the information here can be applied for women, but after some digging around with Google, I would say yes.

I recommend you read my article on principles of muscle building, because by knowing these principles, you would know how to adjust your workouts accordingly.

As for supplements, women can take them too, but only take them if you really require them. e.g. a deficit of it in your diet.

Yes, it is fine to divide the exercises. As you suggested, you could divide them into cardio and weight lifting. You could also divide them into upper body and lower body. But make sure each workout is intense. I would recommend spending at least 25 – 45 minutes, to capitalize on how your hormone levels change during this period.

Hi there, i’m training for a 10k 5 weeks from now, i know this won’t help with my ectomorph workout, but i’m starting the begginer workout… So my week looks like this: mon, wed and friday i train for the 10k, tue thu and sat i do the begginer workout minus the leg work, is this ok, should i do something different? Rest more? Thanks for your help and your site!!!

Hi Rok, I really can’t help if I don’t know what is your goal. If your goal is to get bigger, it will help but you won’t gain much muscles because your training for the 10k will probably kill your muscle gains. If you are training to help you better run the 10k, I am afraid I won’t be able to advise because I don’t the relevant knowledge in this area.

Hi Along, definitely, you need to progressively overload for muscles to grow. If it’s not possible, try to get a spotter to help, or do a higher volume. e.g. more reps, but not exceeding 10-12 reps per set!

Hi John, finish all 3 sets of pull ups first before moving on to 3 sets of bench presses. You could rotate them via supersetting as well, but if you are a beginner, I would advise sticking to the former option.

Hi Erick, I don’t have a specific weight for that, rather, it’s really trial and error. Let’s say for each set of squat, you do 5 reps. Try out the different weights and see which one you can squat for 5 times only. Get a spotter for safety.

Ensure that you can do it at a controlled pace, don’t rush it, don’t use momentum, and all these done with the right posture and using the right muscles.

Hi Wayne, I am also an ectomorph. I’ve been working out at the gym for almost 7 months now, but seem to have hit a wall. I stopped gaining weight after my 4th month having gained about 25lbs. I stumbled upon your site looking for ways to overcome the plateau and I was wondering whether I should begin with your Beginner Gym Workout Routine or proceed with another routine? Hope to hear from you. Thanks!

Hey Boggs! Hmm, there could be many reasons for your plateau. There’s no harm trying out this routine, if it represents a break from your usual routine. either way, I would recommend you check out this article “i life heavy but can’t grow”, pinpoint whichever area is giving you problems and work from there!

Hey Roberto, you could probably spend betw 45min – an hour on this workout. The reason for capping your workout at an hour max is due to the levels of your anabolic hormones such as testosterone. This level normally spikes around the 30-45 mins mark, and goes downhill from there. Another benefit, at least for me, is that forcing myself to be efficient i.e. not taking too long a rest period makes my workout much more intensive, and so much more effective. Cheers!

Hi Matt, if you’re just starting out, this is a great routine to embark on. nevertheless, even if you’re not an absolute beginner, this routine can still work if you’ve not been doing full body workouts recently.